Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 406

By lyz | Published: 2015-03-03

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is issue #406 for the week February 23 – March 1, 2015, and the full version is available here.

In this issue we cover:

The issue of The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

  • Paul White
  • Ian Nicholson
  • Elizabeth K. Joseph
  • Mary Frances Hull
  • And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly Newsletter, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

Except where otherwise noted, content in this issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License BY SA Creative Commons License

Vivid Vervet Beta 1 Released

By lyz | Published: 2015-02-27

The first Beta of the Vivid Vervet (to become 15.04) has now been released!

Pre-releases of the Vivid Vervet are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu flavour developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting and fixing bugs as we work towards getting this release ready.

Beta 1 includes a number of software updates that are ready for wider testing. This is quite an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs.

While these Beta 1 images have been tested and work, except as noted in the release notes, Ubuntu developers are continuing to improve the Vivid Vervet. In particular, once newer daily images are available, system installation bugs identified in the Beta 1 installer should be verified against the current daily image before being reported in Launchpad. Using an obsolete image to re-report bugs that have already been fixed wastes your time and the time of developers who are busy trying to make 15.04 the best Ubuntu release yet. Always ensure your system is up to date before reporting bugs.

This Beta features images for Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, UbuntuKylin, Ubuntu Mate, Xubuntu and the Ubuntu Cloud images.

Kubuntu

Kubuntu uses KDE software and now features the new Plasma 5 desktop.

The Beta 1 images can be downloaded at:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/vivid/beta-1

More information on Kubuntu Beta 1 can be found here:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/VividVervet/Beta1/Kubuntu

Lubuntu

Lubuntu is a flavour of Ubuntu based on LXDE and focused on providing a very lightweight distribution.

The Beta 1 images can be downloaded at:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/vivid/beta-1

Ubuntu GNOME

Ubuntu GNOME is a flavour of Ubuntu featuring the GNOME desktop environment.Vivid Vervet Beta 1 Released

The Beta 1 images can be downloaded at:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-gnome/releases/vivid/beta-1

More information on Ubuntu GNOME Beta 1 can be found here:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/VividVervet/Beta1/UbuntuGNOME

UbuntuKylin

UbuntuKylin is a flavour of Ubuntu that is more suitable for Chinese users.

The Beta 1 images can be downloaded at:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntukylin/releases/vivid/beta-1

More information on UbuntuKylin Beta 1 can be found here:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/VividVervet/Beta1/UbuntuKylin

Ubuntu Mate

Ubuntu Mate is a flavour of Ubuntu featuring the Mate desktop environment.

The Beta 1 images can be downloaded at:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mate/releases/vivid/beta-1

More information on Ubuntu Mate Beta 1 can be found here:

https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-vivid-beta1/

Xubuntu

Xubuntu is a flavour of Ubuntu shipping with the XFCE desktop environment.

The Beta 1 images can be downloaded at:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/vivid/beta-1

More information on Xubuntu Beta-1 can be found here:

http://xubuntu.org/news/xubuntu-15-04-beta-1/

Ubuntu Cloud

Ubuntu Cloud images can be run on Amazon EC2, Openstack, SmartOS and many other clouds.

The Beta 1 images can be downloaded at:

http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/vivid/beta-1/

Regular daily images for Ubuntu can be found at:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com

If you’re interested in following the changes as we further develop Vivid, we suggest that you subscribe to the ubuntu-devel-announce list. This is a low-traffic list (a few posts a week) carrying announcements of approved specifications, policy changes, alpha and beta releases and other interesting events.

http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-announce

A big thank you to the developers and testers for their efforts to pull together this Beta release!

Originally posted to the ubuntu-devel-announce mailing list on Thu Feb 26 19:30:02 UTC 2015 by Elfy, on behalf of the Ubuntu release team.

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 405

By lyz | Published: 2015-02-24

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is issue #405 for the week February 16 – 22, 2015, and the full version is available here.

In this issue we cover:

The issue of The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

  • Paul White
  • Chris Williams
  • Ian Nicholson
  • Elizabeth K. Joseph
  • Mary Frances Hull
  • And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly Newsletter, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

Except where otherwise noted, content in this issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License BY SA Creative Commons License

Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS released

By lyz | Published: 2015-02-20

The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS (Long-Term Support) for its Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Core products, as well as other flavours of Ubuntu with long-term support.

We have expanded our hardware enablement offering since 12.04, and with 14.04.2, this point release contains an updated kernel and X stack for new installations to support new hardware across all our supported architectures, not just x86.

As usual, this point release includes many updates, and updated installation media has been provided so that fewer updates will need to be downloaded after installation. These include security updates and corrections for other high-impact bugs, with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

Kubuntu 14.04.2 LTS, Edubuntu 14.04.2 LTS, Xubuntu 14.04.2 LTS, Mythbuntu 14.04.2 LTS, Ubuntu GNOME 14.04.2 LTS, Lubuntu 14.04.2 LTS, Ubuntu Kylin 14.04.2 LTS, and Ubuntu Studio 14.04.2 LTS are also now available. More details can be found in their individual release notes:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TrustyTahr/ReleaseNotes#Official_flavours

Maintenance updates will be provided for 5 years for Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Server, Ubuntu Cloud, Ubuntu Core, Ubuntu Kylin, Edubuntu, and Kubuntu. All the remaining flavours will be supported for 3 years.

To get Ubuntu 14.04.2

In order to download Ubuntu 14.04.2, visit:

http://www.ubuntu.com/download

Users of Ubuntu 12.04 will be offered an automatic upgrade to 14.04.2 via Update Manager. For further information about upgrading, see:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/TrustyUpgrades

As always, upgrades to the latest version of Ubuntu are entirely free of charge.

We recommend that all users read the 14.04.2 release notes, which document caveats and workarounds for known issues, as well as more in-depth notes on the release itself. They are available at:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TrustyTahr/ReleaseNotes

If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but aren’t sure, you can try asking in any of the following places:

Help Shape Ubuntu

If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at:

http://www.ubuntu.com/community/get-involved

About Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a full-featured Linux distribution for desktops, laptops, clouds and servers, with a fast and easy installation and regular releases. A tightly-integrated selection of excellent applications is included, and an incredible variety of add-on software is just a few clicks away.

Professional services including support are available from Canonical and hundreds of other companies around the world. For more information about support, visit:

http://www.ubuntu.com/support

More Information

You can learn more about Ubuntu and about this release on our website listed below:

http://www.ubuntu.com/

To sign up for future Ubuntu announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu’s very low volume announcement list at:

http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce

Originally posted to the ubuntu-announce mailing list on Fri Feb 20 01:13:08 UTC 2015 by Adam Conrad on behalf of the Ubuntu Release Team

Ubuntu Membership Board call for nominations

By lyz | Published: 2015-02-17

As you may know, Ubuntu Membership is a recognition of significant and sustained contribution to Ubuntu and the Ubuntu community. To this end, the Community Council recruits members of our current membership community for the valuable role of reviewing and evaluating the contributions of potential members to bring them on board or assist with having them achieve this goal.

We have seven members of our boards expiring from their 2 year terms within the next couple months, which means we need to do some restaffing of this Membership Board.

We’re looking for Ubuntu Members who can participate either in the 12:00 UTC meetings or 22:00 UTC (if you can make both, even better).

Both the 12:00 UTC and the 22:00 UTC meetings happen once a month, specific day may be discussed by the board upon addition of new members.

We have the following requirements for nominees:

  • be an Ubuntu member (preferably for some time)
  • be confident that you can evaluate contributions to various parts of our community
  • be committed to attending the membership meetings
  • broad insight into the Ubuntu community at large is a plus

Additionally, those sitting on membership boards are current Ubuntu Members with a proven track record of activity in the community. They have shown themselves over time to be able to work well with others and display the positive aspects of the Ubuntu Code of Conduct. They should be people who can discern character and evaluate contribution quality without emotion while engaging in an interview/discussion that communicates interest, a welcoming atmosphere, and which is marked by humanity, gentleness, and kindness. Even when they must deny applications, they should do so in such a way that applicants walk away with a sense of hopefulness and a desire to return with a more complete application rather than feeling discouraged or hurt.

To nominate yourself or somebody else (please confirm they wish to accept the nomination and state you have done so), please send a mail to the membership boards mailing list (ubuntu-membership-boards at lists.ubuntu.com). You will want to include some information about the nominee, a launchpad profile link and which time slot (12:00 or 22:00) the nominee will be able to participate in.

We will be accepting nominations through Monday March 9th at 12:00 UTC. At that time all nominations will be forwarded to the Community Council who will make the final decision and announcement.

Thanks in advance to you and to the dedication everybody has put into their roles as board members.

Originally posted to the ubuntu-community-team mailing list on Tue Feb 17 10:29:01 UTC 2015 by Elizabeth K. Joseph, on behalf of the Ubuntu Community Council